For the past seven years Chef Phudon Prachum has been executive chef, in charge of six kitchens, at the Cape Panwa Hotel in Phuket. Before that he worked as a chef in many countries, including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Cyprus and Japan. Here, he talks with Phuket.Com about his life as a chef.
Green Curry
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Serves 2 people
Ingredients:
• 30 grams green curry paste
• Vegetable oil
• 1 kaffir lime leaf
• 200 grams coconut milk
• 150 grams of meat (chicken, beef, pork or shelled prawns)
• 10 grams palm sugar
• Fish sauce
• 2 crisp eggplants
• 15-20 leaves of sweet basil
• ½ a red chili
Directions
Heat up a saucepan, then put the green curry paste in it with just enough vegetable oil to fry the paste.
Stir the curry paste for a few minutes then add the kaffir lime leaf and about half the coconut milk. Stir it, then bring it to the boil.
Add the meat, the palm sugar and the rest of the coconut milk, and stir it for a few minutes until the meat is cooked, before adding the eggplants, sweet basil and chili. At this point, taste it to see if it needs a few drops of fish sauce or not. Your curry is now ready to serve. Bon appetit!
Tips from the chef
1. Since the green curry paste already has plenty of flavour, do taste it before deciding whether to add fish sauce. Chef Phudon usually adds a few drops of fish sauce right at the end of cooking, but this will depend on your preference.
2. You can make your curry greener and more aromatic as follows: Put 50 grams of coconut milk, a sprig of coriander and 10 grams of sweet basil in a blender and blend well. When the curry is cooked, add this mixture to it and stir gently.
3. If you can’t find fresh kaffir lime leaf you can use dried ones. You will need 10 dry leaves for every fresh one. Before using them, put the leaves in water for 10 minutes, then dry them for a few minutes until you can smell the aroma from them.
